Brief thoughts

1) ``The first gold pour was from the gravity table concentrate from the first few days of operation, which yielded a gold dore bar weighing approximately 230 ounces. The mill can now expect the commencement of regular weekly gold pours going forward as the Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) circuit is now fully operational. Future gold pours will include gold from the stripping circuit as well as the gravity recovered gold.``

A gold bar of 230 ounces is probably reasonable for the first few days of operations (depending on the definition of ``few days``). Lamaque uses a 2 step recovery process. It sounds like the gold pour was from only the first step in the process. Historically, I believe the gravity circuit recovers about 40-60% of the gold. Century should now be able to run that same ore material through the CIP circuit for further gold recovery, which should add to the 230 ounces recovered already from that bunch of ore material. I believe this second stage uses a cyanide solution to help liberate the gold. The CIP process is a good low grade recovery process. The ore starts as high grade prior to entering the gravity circuit, but after the 40-60% recovery the grade (from the remaining unrecovered gold) naturally would get substantially lowered. The CIP circuit is a good 2nd stage recovery compliment to the gavity circuit, and has allowed Lamaque to historically deliver a 96% recovery rate.

It sounds like both the gravity circuit and the CIP circuit are fully functional now (and going forward).


2) ``The Company will be able to provide tonnage, grade and recovery statistics from the first weeks of production at a later date.``

No point providing detailed stats to the market right now as the ore has likely not even gone through the full gold recovery process as yet. Providing incomplete data too early in the mine start up process can only lead to misunderstandings and ultimately a massive selloff in the share price. At the same time, it is absolutely critical to feed this info to the market as soon as the data is complete. The market needs to gain confidence that all of the key indictors are where they should be, or at least are heading in the right direction.


3) ``The Company is also pleased to report that the first jumbo from the fleet of low profile underground mine equipment has arrived on schedule at the Lamaque operation and is being readied for underground deployment this week. The low profile equipment is expected to significantly increase the underground production rate in the Lamaque #2 mineralized flat zones and also assist in lowering mining costs.``

Theoretically, the low profile equipment should have a positive impact. The new equipment is designed to load and carry more material from similar spaces of the mine (the Lamaque no. 2 flats) than the old equipment. Hopefully they will receive the rest of the fleet in early May (or if they have arrived, will be deployed soon also).

It would have been nice to get a more detailed update on when the early stage mining (non-long hole stoping) of the Bedard dyke is expected to start. I know they are putting in the portal and still fine tuning (or executing) the mine plan, but I think they need to better educate the market (given the important role BD plays in the ramp up process).